What Curt Cignetti said after Indiana's 31-17 win over Washington

Opening speech…

Cignetti: Good win. There are no bad victories. I thought it was really brave to find a way to win. The defense scored the big turnover for a touchdown in the first half, and shortly after, Ponds came back with another touchdown. We made a few nice plays in the first half and had a two-point lead at one point.

But we didn't play very well. We just couldn't do it. Quarterback has a few plays he can learn from. It wasn't like there was nothing there. They have changed their attitude towards us quite a bit. They've gone from being a man coverage team to a zone team, so at some point in the game you throw away almost 50 percent of the game plan and just start shooting them from the hip.

The second half started with the interception, so it was close. We respond with a nice trip and a rating. That was a point. I think on one of those drives we had three runs on third-down conversions, and then it was more about, sometimes you just have to throw that game plan out the window, like, okay, what works against it.

It still comes down to the guys up front and running back Justice Ellison, 29. The line did a great job up front and the punt return was good. The defensive players kept coming back, coming up with plays, and we did it. We gutted it.

We are 8-0 and it was a great team effort. I told the team after the game, really good teams, championship teams, they find ways to win games and we did that today. We found ways to win a game.

Whether this game embodied complementary football…

Cignetti: Well, I don't know if that's complementary football. For me, the complement to football is that you play well, are balanced on offense and do everything you need to do in all three phases. What I would say is that the defense really saved us at the start of the game. Saved us and then made some big turnovers.

Then at the end of the game the offense got the running game going, started to eat up some time and kept them off the field and the special teams with the big return contributed and we had some good plays on special teams.

I think this is a well-coordinated team with a lot of competition, guys that really want to be good, have the right stuff and have found a way to win.

Why running back Justice Ellison got the ball so often in the second half…

Cignetti: Yes, there was a time when we gave the ball to a player 42 times a game, but we won't do that.

You know, Lawton had a little change and didn't feel like he was 100 percent, and Justice had the hot hand. We had Kaelon carry it a few times too, but I thought he was great. Excellent. Ellison.

On Tayven Jackson's day as quarterback…

Cignetti: Yeah, like you said, he made some good plays. He left just as many pieces out there. It's simply a matter of doing what you've been trained to do. When you read your key, don't forget to send the application, things like that.

On the offensive…

Cignetti: Yeah, I don't think we gave up a sack. I think the quarterback got hit once and we did that – we were very consistent on offense. To be honest, we did well against Washington. But these five guys stayed on the field. They took a lot of snaps together, which is really helpful in this position.

I thought she was great.

What changed during Indiana's 14-play, 75-yard drive in the second half…

Cignetti: We really just changed a few things there. If I'm not mistaken, I think we had three rebuilds in progress down there. We played football differently, ate a lot of time and probably surprised them on a few of those 3rd downs when we ran the ball.

On the play of cornerback D'Angelo Ponds, who had two interceptions…

Cignetti: You know, he has good talent, but he also has a competitive nature. He's a competitor and he wants to be great. He has consistency day in and day out. He does the things that help him improve every day and that is his goal. He wants to be the best football player he can be and he loves the process and everything that comes with it and he's intelligent.

He comes from an area down there in Miami where the guys down there in South Florida grew up, were in high school and were very proud of being a ballplayer, and he is a ballplayer.

When I tackle Myles Price for a bad punt return, only to later see a long return from Price…

Cignetti: Yes, I told him that between the negative 20 yard return and the big return they gained zero net yards. (Laugh.)

No, that punt return was a big play in the second half. We had some good blocks and he hit the hole. We made some timely plays in the second half. Special teams played a big role.

On Pond's handling of expectations…

Cignetti: Yes, he is a good player and he wanted to step up and play against the competition at the highest level, like everyone else. He has shown that he is more than capable.

What makes the offensive line so special…

Cignetti: You know, Bob does a great job as a coach. They're all really tough, stubborn guys and work well together. Bob keeps it simple and we don't have any missed tasks or anything like that. These are tough guys. These are tough guys.

Overall with the team at 8-0 and how well the Hoosiers are playing…

Cignetti: I mean, you are what your file says. Believe me, we're going to turn this tape on, and it won't be particularly pretty on either offense or defense. There will be a lot of mistakes out there.

But I think the start wasn't bad.

On the extent of external scrutiny of the Indiana program…

Cignetti: Well, match day came and we spoke briefly about it with the team on Monday and didn't dwell on it after that. I looked into this a little bit for about 15 seconds after last night's tour with the team because that's a great thing about your university, the exposure and all that stuff, but it's really easy for your team to kind of lose your Focus is on what they are there for. I just watched it happen over and over again.

We handled it and won, so it was a good day.